Noeleen Heyzer

Noeleen Heyzer "is the first executive director from the South to head the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the leading operational agency within the United Nations to promote women's empowerment and gender equality. Since joining UNIFEM, Ms. Heyzer has worked on strengthening women's economic security and rights in the context of feminized poverty and globalization; promoting women's leadership in conflict resolution, peace-building and reconstruction; ending violence against women; and combating HIV/AIDS from a gender perspective.

"Previously, Ms. Heyzer was the policy adviser to Asian governments and was instrumental in the formulation of national development policies, strategies and programmes from a gender perspective. In 1994-95 she played a key role in the preparatory process for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, including organizing 1000 NGOs in the Asia Pacific region to develop the first ever NGO Action Plan.

"Ms. Heyzer has been a founding member of numerous regional and international women's networks and has published extensively on gender and development issues, especially economic globalization, international migration and trafficking, gender and trade, and women, peace and security. Born in Singapore, she received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Singapore and a doctorate in social sciences from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. She has received several awards for leadership including the UNA-Harvard Leadership Award, the Woman of Distinction Award from the UN-NGO Committee on the Status of Women and the Dag Hammarksjold medal in 2004."

Has coedited a book with James V. Riker.


 * Director, Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement
 * Advisory Council, The Initiative for Inclusive Security
 * Advisory Board, Peace X Peace
 * Advisory Council, Women’s Learning Partnership
 * Global Fund for Women: Advisory Council 2005-06
 * International Advisory Board, Crisis Management Initiative
 * Prize Selection Committee, Millenium Peace Prize
 * Advisory Committee, Kumarian Press
 * Advisory Board, People-Centered Development Forum